In an unexpected reversal, Samaras defeated
Dora Bakoyianni for leadership of the ND Party in 2009, following Karamanlis’
defeat by George Papandreou. So it was the turn of the Mitsotakis family to go
into the cold. Until now.

As Minister of Administrative Reform,
Mitsotakis has been handed the poisoned chalice of meeting the Troika’s targets
to lay off 150,000 public sector workers to 2015, and specifically 15,000 by
2014. Of these, 4,000 must be fired this year.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis is, in formal respects,
a
highly-trained, competent person. He studied economics and business at
Harvard and Stanford, graduating with stellar marks. He worked at McKinsey, one
of the top consulting firms, as well as Alfa Ventures and the National Bank of
Greece’s Venture Fund.

Which makes his very public flip-flopping
over Greece’s commitments a particularly tragicomic one in the past week, since
he became Minister.

·The ERT
workers have not actually been fired: the Greek Council of State has ruled that
ERT must remain on air while its liquidation is implemented and the new
broadcaster is formed. It is painfully clear that the way the “closure” has
been implemented violated Greek constitutional law as well as European public
law. The closure cannot be taken for fact at this point in time, especially
since the full termination compensation has not been paid.

It’s therefore a question of simple subtraction
that in the best case, the prior “achievement” is not 2,656 lay-offs, but 656.
And only once they are implemented.

Does Minister Mitsotakis really believe the
Troika will be pleased with this kind of juggling? Or does he believe that he
can dodge the bullet of adverse public opinion?

But the Mitsotakis gambit does not stop
here. In addition to the previous creative mathematics, he was also hoping to
convince the Troika to grant more time to decide which staff to place in a
labour reserve. On the face of it, this seems like an honest request: after
all, he is a newly-appointed minister.

These two decisions are incredibly damaging
to his personal credibility, as well as the credibility of the country.

What does this entire episode tell us about
the state of the government today, and its key players?

Samaras has made a macabre political
decision—he has appointed Kyriakos Mitsotakis to Minister of Administrative
Reforms, knowing that the full political cost would fall on the son of his
hated former mentor and rival Konstantinos Mitsotakis.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis was ambitious or
foolish enough to accept the position, and apparently thought he was too clever
for the troika, or for public opinion, and that Mitt Romney-scale flip-flopping
would see him through.

Once again, absolutely no one in government
appears to have a rational plan for public sector restructuring or lay-offs.
There are some 6,000 Greek civil servants who have been found in dereliction of
their duty, but even these 6,000 have not yet been fired. The political cost is
simply too high: the margin of seats in Parliament is too low.

Yet perhaps the most depressing finding is
that people who have had the benefit of education at top international
universities, who were appointed to bright jobs on the strength of their
political families, apparently think they will “win” by a craven behaviour that
displays a total lack of respect for the truth, or for common sense.

This succession of failure can only be
described as systemic, and total. The CVs of the last four prime ministers of
Greece are eerily similar: top US universities (three of the four were at
Harvard), high positions greased by political influence, every opportunity for honest
success which most “outsiders” never have. Yet not a single one has behaved
honourably.

And judging from the antics of Mr.
Mitsotakis this past week, there is no shortage of future candidates for Prime
Minister who share the same elite background, and who will behave exactly the
same way.

“If
the taboo on firing workers in the public sector ends, the government will win
an important negotiating weapon, in order to achieve changes in tax policy and
in questions which affect the larger majority of citizens, such as
non-performing loans.”

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